Getting Files to GitHub

A step-by-step guide using Git + GitHub CLI on Fedora

⚙ Fedora / KDE Plasma ❯ GitHub CLI ■ Terminal
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One-Time Setup

1
Install Git and GitHub CLI
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Open Konsole (or any terminal) and run these two commands. Git is the version control engine; gh is GitHub's official CLI tool that sits on top of it.

terminal
$ sudo dnf install git
terminal
$ sudo dnf install gh
✓ If either is already installed, dnf will just say "nothing to do." No harm done.
2
Tell Git who you are
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Git stamps every commit with your name and email. These should match your GitHub account. This only needs to be done once per machine.

terminal
$ git config --global user.name "Your Name" $ git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
ℹ Replace the quoted values with your actual name and the email tied to your GitHub account.
3
Authenticate with GitHub
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This is where gh really shines — it handles all the authentication plumbing for you. Run this and follow the interactive prompts:

terminal
$ gh auth login

It will ask you a few things:

prompts you'll see
? What account do you want to log into? → GitHub.com ? What is your preferred protocol? → HTTPS ? Authenticate Git with your GitHub credentials? → Yes ? How would you like to authenticate? → Login with a web browser

It will give you a one-time code, then open your browser. Paste the code, authorize the app, and you're done. This also configures regular git push to work without extra password prompts.

✓ You can verify it worked by running: gh auth status
4
Clone your existing repo
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This downloads your GitHub repo to a local folder. Navigate to wherever you want to keep your projects first (like ~/Projects), then clone:

terminal
$ cd ~/Projects $ gh repo clone your-username/your-repo-name

This creates a folder with your repo's name containing all of your existing files. Move into it:

terminal
$ cd your-repo-name
ℹ You can find the exact clone path on your repo's GitHub page — the green <> Code button shows it. But with gh, just the username/repo format works.
▶

Adding Your Files Today

5
Copy your files into the repo folder
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Use your file manager (Dolphin) or the terminal to copy your new files into the cloned repo folder. You can also overwrite existing files if you're updating them — Git will detect the changes automatically.

terminal — examples
# Copy a single file $ cp ~/Downloads/my-new-game.html . # Copy several files at once $ cp ~/Downloads/file1.html ~/Downloads/file2.html . # Copy everything from a folder $ cp ~/Downloads/my-batch/* .
⚠ Make sure you're inside the repo folder when you do this. The . at the end means "right here."
6
Check what Git sees
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Before committing, take a look at what Git has detected. This is your safety check — get in the habit of running this often:

terminal
$ git status

You'll see output like this:

example output
Untracked files: my-new-game.html another-file.html Modified: existing-file.html

Untracked = brand new files Git hasn't seen before. Modified = existing files you've updated. Both are expected.

7
Stage and commit
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Staging means telling Git "include these changes in my next commit." Committing creates a snapshot with a message describing what you did.

terminal
# Stage everything (new + modified) $ git add . # Commit with a message $ git commit -m "Add new game files and update index"

Or, to stage and commit specific files instead of everything:

terminal — selective
$ git add my-new-game.html another-file.html $ git commit -m "Add two new game projects"
✓ Write commit messages that describe what changed, not that something changed. "Add Missile Command remake" beats "update files."
8
Push to GitHub
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Your commit currently exists only on your machine. Push sends it up to GitHub so it's live in your repo:

terminal
$ git push

That's it. Go check your repo on GitHub — your new and updated files should be there. Since gh auth login already set up your credentials, no password prompt should appear.

✓ You can quickly open your repo in the browser with: gh browse
★

Your Daily Workflow

9
The daily 4-command loop
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Once the setup is done, adding 1–5 files per day is just this loop every time:

daily workflow
# 1. Go to your repo $ cd ~/Projects/your-repo-name # 2. Copy in your new/updated files $ cp ~/path/to/new-files/* . # 3. Stage, commit, push $ git add . $ git commit -m "Add today's project files" $ git push
ℹ You can make multiple commits per day. Smaller, focused commits with clear messages are better than one giant dump at the end of the day.
⚠ If you ever edit files directly on GitHub's website, run git pull before starting local work to sync those changes down first. Otherwise you'll get merge conflicts.
⚡ Quick Reference
git status
See what's changed / staged
git add .
Stage all changes
git commit -m "msg"
Save a snapshot locally
git push
Upload commits to GitHub
git pull
Download latest from GitHub
git log --oneline
See commit history
git diff
See unstaged changes in detail
gh browse
Open repo in browser
gh auth status
Check login state
gh repo view
Repo info in terminal